


A Sinner and A Saint

by Scylla87



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, Developing Relationship, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Saints & Sinners (The Flash TV 2014), Secrets about Leonard's past, Sexual Manipulation, laying low in 80s Central City
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 00:08:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17233727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scylla87/pseuds/Scylla87
Summary: Waiting for the Waverider to be repaired while stuck in 1988 Central City, Sara lays low in Saints & Sinners with Leonard. Unfortunately, he forgot the he and Mick were already regulars at the bar in 1988. And that is not the only revelation about his past that Sara is about to be confronted with.





	A Sinner and A Saint

**Author's Note:**

> This was initially meant to be the third part of my CC poly series, but as I was writing it, it kind of went off in it's own direction. I was already almost 4000 words into the story and didn't want to abandon it if it could possibly work on its own. I'm not completely happy with this, but I think it is about as good as it is going to get. I hope that it turned out at least somewhat okay. Thanks so much for reading.

A Sinner and a Saint:

The bar was hot and noisy as Sara sat looking around at the assembled crowd. So this was Central City in the 80s? She was not impressed. Her eyes flicked to the clock on the wall. They had only been there for ten minutes, and she was already anxious to get out of there. Leaving wasn’t an option though. Rip had made it clear that they were supposed to lay low while Jax was working on the ship, and this was the place that Leonard had chosen to wait for the repairs to be done. She had stuck with him thus far as he was the expert on laying low in 80s Central. If only he had chosen a cleaner place.

 

She had been trying to tell herself that was the cause of her unease since the moment they had arrived, but if she was honest, she had felt off-kilter since they had set out from the field where the waverider was parked. The unease had come with the first flash of desire. Not that kind of desire but a desire all the same. They had been walking away from the ship, feet dragging along the grass, and she had a sudden urge to reach down and take his hand into her own. It was so simple, so normal, so ridiculous. She couldn’t hold hands with Captain Cold. But the desire to had stayed with her the whole way to the bar.

 

When they had arrived things had only gotten worse. Sara Lance was used to being stared at by men. And women too, for that matter. It had hardly escaped her attention that she was beautiful, but there was a certain way that the men in Saints and Sinners stared at her that was off somehow. Like they were trying to look at her stealthily, careful not to get caught in their appreciation. Those looks weren’t completely foreign to her either, usually from people who knew what she was capable of. But no one here knew anything about her years of clinging to survival. No, they looked at her that way because of Leonard. He was an unknown to them as well, but unknown men in places like that were always treated with more caution than unknown women. They were wary of looking at her because they weren’t sure how violent this guy could be and assumed that the woman trailing in close behind him must be his lady. It was that realization that had made her squirm uncertainly under the arm he had casually thrown over her shoulder as they walked to a table in the back.

 

Was she his lady? It was a question she suddenly wanted an answer to, but not one that she could imagine herself asking. Saying, ‘hey are you my boyfriend’ seemed about as ridiculous as holding his hand. Just the word boyfriend almost made her want to laugh. They weren’t in high school. Though… Her mind did the math quickly. He would have been about that age now. She would have been an infant, just shy of a year old right about now. The difference in their ages had never occurred to her before, but now that it had, she felt even more out of her comfort zone. This was all so new, mere days since they had given into whatever this was between them. It was just sex. But then, why did being here with him feel a little like they were on a date? Another question she couldn’t manage to voice just yet. Instead she ran through the details that had stuck out at her about the situation. He had obviously brought her to a place that meant something to him, a place he had clearly spent a significant amount of time in. He had also directed them to the back corner where there was only a half-booth, the other side of the table devoid of the chairs that normally would have been there, forcing her to sit directly beside him at the table. Still, she was uncertain what this was meant to be.

 

Luckily, she was saved from much more contemplation by a waitress appearing out of nowhere and deposited an overflowing plate of food on the table. The woman deposited the food and left without a word. Sara couldn’t help glancing at the plate in surprise; she had never seen Leonard eat so much food in one setting before. “I know you said you weren’t hungry, but I got extra in case you change your mind.”

 

His words caught her a little off guard. Was he suggesting that they share food? She added it to the list of potential date details she had been compiling. “Thanks,” she muttered with a small smile.

 

This shouldn’t be so uncomfortable. After all, things had hardly been uncomfortable that morning when his cock was in her mouth. Why should being in public with their clothes on be so awkward? She hated how she felt like a school girl with a crush, the urge to ask if they were going steady on her lips. His voice interrupted her thoughts. He had leaned down, mouth so close to her ear that his lips brushed against it as he spoke. “I got to hit the can. If someone bothers you, try not to get into a fight if you can avoid it.” She barely had time to wonder why he was being so cautious before he had risen from the booth and headed toward the back.

 

He had just disappeared out of sight when the outside door swung open. Sara’s eyes flicked toward the door along with everyone else’s, a habit well-honed by her own experiences in places like Saints and Sinners. The sight in front of her sent a chill down her spine. Just inside the door stood two boys, one of which looked very familiar. Her eyes followed them as they walked away from the door. Neither of them looked old enough to even be in a bar, let enough drinking the beers they were handed the second they claimed two stools. In fact, she knew for a fact that one of them was years away from being old enough to drink. She didn’t know what made her rise from her seat and walk over to them, but her feet were carrying her to them before she could consider how reckless it might be. What if the memory wipe hadn’t worked properly? “Can I get two more beers?” she asked when she finally reached her goal.

 

The kid behind the bar, not much older than her quarry, turned to grab a couple of bottles, and she took the opportunity to eye the two boys beside her as stealthily as possible. Up close it was even more painfully apparent how little time had passed for the kid sitting on the stool right next to her. If it wasn’t for the change of clothes, she could have believed that this was the same Mick Rory that they had just dropped off on the edge of his burning family home. “You got a problem lady?” he growled, proving that the memory wipe they had used on him had worked perfectly well.

 

She shook her head. “Just waiting for my drinks.” The bartender handed the bottles over as she spoke. “See,” she said, holding them up as evidence.

 

Teenaged Mick shrugged and went back to his own beer. Sara scoffed lightly, unsure what had made her come to get a closer look at him in the first place. Morbid curiosity maybe. She shook her head and circled around his barstool to get back to her table. A prickle on the back of her neck made her stop in her tracks. She was familiar with that particular feeling, someone’s eyes on her ass. The nerve of him! Careful to keep her temper in check, she spun around to find it was not Mick but his friend that was looking at her. He made no attempt to suggest his eyes had been elsewhere when it became apparent she had guessed he was checking her out. “You’ll have to excuse my friend,” the boy said. “He was raised in a barn.”

 

This was clearly meant to be some kind of inside joke that was at his friend’s expense. She rolled her eyes. “Were you also raised in a barn? Didn’t your mother ever teach you that it isn’t polite to stare at a lady’s ass?”

 

The boy narrowed his eyes at her. “Mother?” he asked, the almost playful lilt to his voice not quite covering up the hurt in his tone. “Haven’t got one of those.”

 

“I’m sorry,” she said.

 

“For?” he asked her in a bored kind of voice. The message was clear, drop it.

 

“For putting my ass in the way of your eyes,” she said instead.

 

Mick snorted into his beer. “No need to apologize for that,” his friend replied, back to flirty in an instant. “I could stare at that ass any time.”

 

Sara tried not to laugh. This kid was at least ten years younger than her, surely he didn’t think he actually had a shot. She took a step toward him, prepared to let him down as gently as possible without destroying his fragile adolescent ego and got her second shook of the day. The words she had been about to utter failed her as she was met with a pair of bluish grey eyes watching her intently. She knew those eyes, had seen those eyes just that morning, looking down at her as she… What was that she had said about being so much older than him? “There a problem here?” a voice said beside her. A voice she wasn’t sure that she wanted to hear just then.

 

She couldn’t bring herself to look at him as an arm was draped around her shoulder and she was pulled close. “No problem,” the boy with the eerily similar eyes said with a shrug. “Just apologizing for my friend.”

 

“Well that was good of you,” her rescuer replied, the skepticism clear in his voice.

 

He led her back to the table, her feet moving under her of their own accord, and helped her slide into the booth. Her eyes flicked to the two teens at the bar, heads bent together, conversing intently. Well, per usual, the teenaged version of Mick didn’t seem to be doing much of the talking. The sight made her chuckle. “I don’t know why I was so surprised,” she said with a look at the version of Leonard Snart she knew. “When I saw Mick walk in with another kid his age, in Central City of all places, I should have done the math.”

 

He graced her with one of his patented smirks. “I should have considered we might come in here,” he admitted. “This was a popular haunt of ours.”

 

She noticed that he didn’t say, ‘when we were kids,’ but left the timing ambiguous. There was a time when it would have been safe to come here, without a fear that they might run into younger versions of the criminals, but by 1988 that time had clearly passed. “This place is important to you,” she said. “That’s why you thought to come here.”

 

He glanced at her out of the side of his eye but said nothing. It was a confession that he wasn’t ready to make, yet another instance of the minefield that stood between them. For some reason she felt more comfortable with the reminder. It made things seem more normal between them. “What is your fascination with my ass?” she asked suddenly.

 

When he turned to her confused she inclined her head toward the bar. “It’s a very nice ass.”

 

He smiled at her almost shyly as he said it, and she wondered if he had gotten better or worse at flirting since he was a teenager. Better, she thought, not that she planned to tell him that. “I can’t believe that I routinely have sex with you,” she muttered.

 

“If only the kid at the bar knew that. He’s probably quite put out by your rejection. Maybe you should go back over there and let him know he only needs to wait about thirty years to see that as naked.”

 

She reached over and shoved him gently. “Keep talking like that and it’ll be another thirty before it happens again.”

 

They laughed together genuinely, a few of the people near them turning to stare. “I don’t think that laughter is allowed here,” she muttered.

 

“Beth does discourage it,” he replied, taking a bite of his food.

 

The name had weight, that much was clear by the surprised look on his face when he realized what he had said. “And Beth is?” she asked, unsure if he would answer or not.

 

“The owner.” He screwed up his face for a moment. “Though I guess that isn’t true yet. Her parents still own the bar. This would be before the fire.” Something about her face must have asked the question going through her mind for her because he answered it before she had spoken. “Oddly, Mick was not involved.”

 

She chuckled lightly. “I’ll have to take your word for it.”

 

“No, seriously. He has an alibi. He was in prison.”

 

She really laughed at that. Leave it to Mick to be completely in the clear because he was in prison at the time. “Do you know?” she asked without thinking. “What he did to his family, I mean.”

 

Leonard looked at her carefully for a long moment, his expression unreadable. “I assume you mean that me, the one at the bar. Does he know? He does.” He glanced at the teens uncertainly. “But he also knows things that you don’t.”

 

She waited patiently to see if he would go on, but he never did. “Things you won’t tell me,” she guessed.

 

“Not things that are mine to tell.”

 

The answer made sense. Mick had saved his life once. Leonard had told her that story as they were on the verge of freezing to death. The pair had been friends ever since then. It wasn’t her place to question the bond they shared or pry into secrets that only they knew. Something told her that deep down she already suspected what he was hinting at. The younger version of him talking about his mother came back to her suddenly. A boy like that wouldn’t forgive someone for killing their mother, not on purpose. She filed the detail away and moved on. “So what is the deal with this Beth then?” she asked instead of all the things she would rather say.

 

“Nothing much to tell. She took over the bar after her parents died. Has a reputation for being a hard ass. You’d probably love her. Should be here soon,” he added with a glance at the clock. The words were no sooner out of his mouth before the door to the bar opened and closed quickly. All conversation in the bar ceased instantly and did not resume. He didn’t need to look up to know the cause. “Ahh, that’s her now.” He nodded absently, his eyes never leaving the plate in front of him. Whoever this Beth was, she must have been extremely punctual for Leonard to remember what time she came into the bar all those years later.

 

Sara glanced in the direction of the newcomer and all words failed her. The woman, she assumed to be Beth, stood looking around the assembled crowd pointedly. A few of the people who came under her gaze rose quickly and left. Others became extremely interested in their drinks. The only one who seemed able to meet her stare without flinching was the younger version of Leonard. He stared back at her, a familiarity in his gaze that Sara found eerie. Beth met his gaze with narrowed eyes and crossed to the bar. Sara watched her walk, a mix of purpose and casual indifference, and could see why Leonard would think that she would like her. This was a woman after her own heart, someone who could more than adequately take care of herself. She was extremely beautiful too, but none of the mean watched her trek to the bar. It was clear that everyone was afraid of her, except for Mick, who seemed indifferent, and Leonard, who had the audacity to look at her like he wanted to see her naked. Sara was sure that the kid would receive a slap, or worse, the second the woman reached him, but instead she lightly grazed her fingers across his back as she passed.

 

The intimacy of the action shocked her into silence. Beth was older than her, by a few years at least. Sara sat there, slowly processing, putting the pieces together one by one. It wasn’t that the teen wanted to see her naked, it was that he had seen her naked. She wasn’t sure if she was shocked, appalled, or jealous. “Does she know you’re, what fifteen?”

 

“Sixteen. And yes.” She turned to find him looking at his plate, every muscle in his body tense as he picked at the food. “Obviously, you weren’t meant to know that part.”

 

No, she didn’t think she had been meant to know about this particular part of his past. But why? They weren’t exactly the sharing kind of friends, and they certainly weren’t a couple, so it shouldn’t have come as such a surprise that he didn’t want to share with her all his dirty little secrets. She chuckled a little to herself. He was probably just the same as all the other men she’d been involved with in the past. “You just figured that you’d come back here and relieve your glory days, maybe we’d even have a threesome with your ex or something?”

 

“Of course not,” he said, looking at her appalled. “Rip said lay low, and this was always a good place to chill. Tagging along was your idea.” He glanced at the bar reluctantly, and she was painfully aware that this was the first time that the adult Leonard had looked at the woman since she’d entered the bar. There was something in his eyes that Sara hadn’t known him long enough to interpret but that she suspected was not a happy look. “This will come as a shock to you, I know, but that does not end well.” He scoffed lightly as he inclined his head toward the scene at the bar.

 

Sara’s eyes followed his own and found that he was not looking at Beth after all but at himself. The teenager was leaning across the bar and laughing goofily at something the woman was saying. Who the hell had he been at sixteen? As they watched, something the kid said made the woman coo and pinch his cheek. The sight made Sara’s stomach churn. It was like being the witness to a horrific car crash as it was happening. She suspected that ‘did not end well’ was an understatement. “She’s very pretty,” she said instead of the millions of other things swimming through her mind.

 

“Prettier than I remembered,” he muttered. Now that he had given into the urge to look, he seemed unable to look away.

 

Sara, on the other hand, found it difficult to watch. There was a reason for this scene, a reason it had played out this was. Was he telling her something by showing her this, even reluctantly? She wondered what she was looking at as she tried to break down the facts as she knew them. When he was a teenager, he had had an affair with an older woman. It had ended badly. There was something else, something hovering at the edge of her mind, something he had told her, though the Leonard beside her didn’t know it. ‘Mother,’ the boy had said, ‘have got one of those.’ Her jaw fell open suddenly. “How much older than you is she?”

 

“I don’t remember. Fourteen years?” He sounded uncertain.

 

Sara looked between the scene in front of her and the man beside her. It wasn’t something that he wanted to tell her; it was a question he wanted to ask her. Is this us? She glanced at the bar. Beth was leaned over it, ample cleavage on display. The smile on her face was sweet but sickening. She knew what she was doing, and the teen was hanging on every word that she had to say. “What happened?” Sara asked, her eyes glued to the oncoming disaster.

 

He didn’t respond to her question, at least no directly. “You remind me of her a bit. Not in a bad way.” He actually smiled fondly at that. “No one would dare fuck with her. She’s just this little thing, hardly looks like much at all, but she had this way of clearing a room just with her gaze. Well, you saw. Who was I to not be drawn in by that? I was hardly the only one, though he doesn’t know that.” He tilted his head at his younger self with a scowl.

 

She sighed heavily and considered her words. Was now the time to be honest or say something placating? She opened her mouth to speak before she knew which one had won. “I’m not sure it’s the same though,” she said. “I’m not sixteen.” And I bet she never considered what she was doing like you are. Sara thought it but never said those particular words.

 

“How much does that matter though?”

 

“A lot,” she said, turning her whole body to look at him. “Where is this coming from?”

 

To her surprise he turned to look at her as well. “Why are you with me?” he asked.

 

She pondered the question carefully. “We have fun together,” she finally said. “We don’t have to define it beyond that if you don’t want.”

 

He jerked his head toward the bar. “That’s the kind of thing that I would say to her. We didn’t need to define it if _she_ didn’t want. Meanwhile, I kept wondering what we were, if she loved me, if she’d stay. I was terrified that she would leave me, thought my heart would break apart if she did.” He laughed hollowly. “I wasn’t wrong about that part. She got bored of me eventually, moved onto someone else.”

 

“Well, I won’t be heartbroken if you move onto someone else,” she said with a playful laugh. He didn’t join her in her merriment. “Look, I like you, and I like having fun with you, but I don’t need to hold your hand to be in this.” He shot her a confused look. “Just forget it. A momentary lapse in judgement. You’re the crook; I’m the assassin. We don’t do normal couple things like hold hands.”

 

To her surprise he reached down and grabbed her hand. “I like you,” he said, an earnestness to tone that was a little disturbing. “But I’m not sure that whatever this is going on between us is any different than that.” He gestured at the bar again. “I know you say that you’re an adult and know what you’re doing, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am way too old for you. I think that us sleeping together was a mistake.”

 

She scoffed lightly. “Just because you have mommy issues, doesn’t mean that I have daddy issues too,” she snapped, though she regretted it the second she said the word. He looked so shocked that she would even suggest something like that that she wanted to do or say anything to back things better between them. It seemed so unlikely that not ten minutes before they had been laughing together effortlessly. “Why can’t we just have fun together and see where this goes?” she asked with a soft squeeze of his hand.

 

“I don’t want things to end like they did with Beth and me. I wouldn’t want to hurt you like that.”

 

It shocked her a little how genuine he seemed. She had never once seen him anything remotely close to open before that point. “Leonard Snart, are you breaking up with me on our first date?” she teased.

 

He actually laughed at that. “You think I would bring you here for a date?”

 

She shrugged. “I figured diamond heist actually. Can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I was when you brought me here.”

 

Even his glare was snarkier than she was though. “Diamond heist? You think it’s that easy do, you? I already have a partner that I am quite happy with.”

 

“I know. I know,” she said with a mocking shake of her head. “You’d never cheat on Mick like that. I just thought, since diamonds are a girl’s best friend…” She let the thought trail off significantly.

 

He leaned in with a smirk. “You know that you should never joke about such things with a thief. I might get ideas.”

 

She chuckled softly, “Sorry, I’m only willing to steal with someone who’s willing to fuck my senseless afterwards.”

 

There was a long silence between them. “I might be willing to play things by ear on that score, if you are sure that’s what you really want.” He gave her a moment to speak up before he went on. “Now, we don’t have enough time for diamonds, but how do you feel about art? I know of a very nice museum 6.9 miles from here.”

 

“You know exactly how far the museum is from here?”

 

“It is very important to support the arts,” he said seriously.

 

Sara found herself laughing. “You can’t be serious. What if we get caught?”

 

“How would we get caught? The Flash hasn’t even been born yet!”

 

Despite herself she rose from the booth and let him lead the way toward the Central City museum. As she walked she couldn’t help but spare a glance at the younger version of the thief. A part of her wanted to walk back over to him, maybe even drag him along on their quest, anything to get him away from the woman he was entwined with, but she knew that it was not meant to be. Even if she saved him today, he would just be back in Beth’s clutches tomorrow. She was in the process of turning away when she caught sight of Mick’s face. He too was staring at the pair, a mixture of disgust and concern directed at the scene. She paused and stared at the teen. What had he known, or at least suspected, about this woman toying with his friend? Involuntarily, she took a step toward him. “You coming?” Leonard asked behind her.

 

She spun back around. “Yeah. How far did you say the museum is from here?” she asked to cover her actions.

 

“6.9 miles. Don’t worry, I know where we can get a car though.”

 

She laughed softly as she followed him out the door. Something told her that they were about to commit their first non-mission sanctioned felony together. A great start to a relationship.


End file.
